Maria Paula Brito

As Phnom Penh shopowners locked up their wares and tens of thousands left the city to enjoy the Khmer New Year holiday in the provinces, about 1,000 residents who stayed behind—some solemn and others playful—gathered at Wat Phnom on Tuesday afternoon to welcome the year’s incoming angel.

In the northwest corner of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Keng Kang market, a new stall is creating a buzz among shoppers. Its occupant is a 28-year-old former U.S. Peace Corps volunteer who offers tarot-card readings in Khmer. And customers say her predictions are on point.

Only one child remained hospitalized Wednesday after a group of about 800 people fell ill from food poisoning caused by tainted sandwiches served at a World Vision event in Siem Reap province on Saturday, a spokesman for the NGO said.

At a ceremony to inaugurate a new stupa at Phnom Penh’s Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum on Thursday, German Ambassador Joachim Baron von Marschall urged young Cambodians to be less reluctant to speak openly about the Khmer Rouge era, noting that it was Germany’s youth in the 1970s who “asked uncomfortable questions” about the Holocaust.

While some city residents will head home or to fancy restaurants to seek out their midday meal, many more will make their way to the nearest “hang bai,” a street-side, family-run restaurant selling various soups, stews and braised dishes.

During the second day of questioning from U.N. human rights experts in Geneva, Cambodian officials continued to take a combative and dismissive approach to inquiries regarding the government’s adherence to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

A group of activists staged a flash mob in Phnom Penh’s Wat Botom park Thursday evening, performing the Madison and the cha-cha-cha to bring attention to women’s rights in the lead-up to International Women’s Day on Sunday.

The number of children in the country who are stunted—leaving them physically smaller and mentally weaker than their properly nourished peers—dropped by 7 percent between 2010 and 2014, according to a nationwide survey released Tuesday.

In the lead-up to Chinese New Year, vendors lined the markets and streets of Phnom Penh touting “money trees,” or bundles of Angkea sil branches, which are believed to bring fortune to those celebrating the holiday.

The government’s National Committee for Counter Trafficking expanded its ranks and set out a new four-year plan to increase its reach in the fight against human trafficking during an event Tuesday at the Interior Ministry.

Representatives of 400 Phnom Penh families who fear losing their land to a railway rehabilitation project partially funded by the Asian Development Bank protested outside the bank’s country office on Friday morning.

A government-led team tasked with identifying the source of an outbreak of HIV in Battambang province’s Roka commune began a survey of residents Tuesday in an attempt to determine how the virus spread, an official said.